Gulliver the Traveler

Before you start to read Part IV of Gulliver's Travels, I would like you to think about Gulliver.  How would you describe him--what are his character traits?  How similar to or different from Hytholoday is he?  Do you think there is something about his personality that makes him susceptible to the influences of the people he meets, or would anyone (say, you or I) respond just as Gulliver does?

Trouble in Paradise

To what does Adam attribute Eve's dream as she relates it in Book V? How does his interpretation of her dream  compare to Pertelote's interpretation of Chaunticleer's?

Also, while we have seen Satan defiant and doubting and persuasive and vengeful, after he sees Adam and Eve in love at the end of their day, he feels another emotion--what is it?   (iv, 505ff)  Does that change his purpose?

I must comment on the quality of the discussions I see here each week.  You have tremendous insight and all express it very well!  Reading this makes me not so worried about the silence in the classroom!!

Donne, Herrick, and Marvell

How would you compare and contrast the approach taken to love poetry by these three poets?  What seems to be important to each?  Make specific references to the poetry in your response, please.

Sidney and Love Poetry

In Chaucer's "The Knight's Tale," you will recall, Palamon and Arcite have a heated disagreement about Emily's nature--is she human or divine?  Do you think Astrophil has basically this same conflict in his adoration of Stella?  Can she be both to him?  How does he express and then reconcile his conceptions of her?  Use some specific examples from the sonnets as you explore this idea.

Utopian Sameness

Raphael Hythloday describes the 54 Utopian cites as "all spacious and magnificent, identical in language, customs, institutions, and laws.  So far as the location permits, all are built on the same plan, and have the same appearance" (More 547).

While that might produce the same kind of reassurance that knowing every McDonald's in every city and town in this country serve the same hamburger and fries, what might be the limitations to that kind of order?  What attitude about life does that imply?

The Canterbury Tales

Within Chaucer's framework collection of stories, he experimented with all the major literary genres of the day.  "The Miller's Tale" and "The Merchant's Tale" are both fabliaux.  It seems, however, that both are similar (ironically) to "The Knight's Tale."  In what ways are the tales by the miller and the merchant similar (beyond the obvious love triangle) to each other--and then simlar to the tale of Palamon and Arcite?

The Miller's Tale

What conclusion can you draw about Chaucer's purpose and his audience in  The Miller's Tale  following The Knight's Tale?  The order of the telling of the tales is not random, so what is the effect of that deliberate order?

Sorry for the late post!

The Knight and His Tale

Two questions:
1.  From what we know about the Knight from the General Prologue, why is his tale appropriate to his character?

2.  What do you find the most surprising/interesting about the love "triangle" of Palamon, Arcite, and Emily?

What Kind of Hero is Sir Gawain?

We talked of this somewhat in class, but how do Beowulf and Gawain compare as heroes?  What qualities of each hero are admirable? How could you argue that the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a progression of the idea of the medieval heroic that makes sense as the society (insofar as we have studied it) was developing in the 14th century in Britain?

Great discussion this week. 

Christianity in Beowulf

As we discussed in class, the Beowulf poet is Christian, and there are Christian references.  What do you think the poet's attitude is towards the obviously pagan Beowulf and others? How does the poet introduce Christian references?  What is the effect of the references that follow descriptions of the battle with Grendel, for example?

Do you agree the "the entire poem could be viewed as the poet's lament for heroes like Beowulf who went into the darkness without the light of the of the poet's own Christian faith" (31).

A note on my prompts:  I will tend to ask a series of questions in a prompt--but as in this prompt, they are meant to serve as appositions.  The questions following the main question (or comment) are meant to help explain the first one.